If anyone uses references when drawing me something for Artfight I personally do not mind one bit and will refuse to report anybody over it... It's a fun free event where we are gifting art and I'm not worried about points personally.
Game over 😔 We died but like also took out a few of our coterie on the way out so like positives.
Context, Henry has compulsive presence and megalomania, and holes in his brain where soke of the big bads can enter- he found a ring which fixed all of that which almost immediately got destroyed (fuck u ST lmao) and gave him back everything doubled.
In his rage upon doubling and not passing on he compulsively summoned the mage who did it (who is also the one who has a hole in his mind) to, you know, murder. Buuut rolled so high (disgustingly like 8 successes) he came through the mind hole and possessed him.
So Henry for the rest of the end game is stuck in his mind while the fuckass mage pilots his body. They all go to kill Malkav and the mage in Henrys body gets to fireball everyone. In the end Malkav and Henry/the mage manage to kill all but 2 members of the party who hide or flee, the mage abandons his body and Henrys left there like what the hell is going on and is immediately nuked by Malkav, cus to be fair fireball is AOE.
This has taken a long time to figure out, my take on what dropping to humanity 2 does to a guy.
I cant get over the irony of his change, Toreador elder who not 4 months ago in game was a humanity 5 Bonvivant, now a humanity 2 Monster.
He has sacrificed everything, his partner, vanity, morals for his survival and he still thinks its not enough. Hes going on a suicide mission to stop Malkav and he is not strong enough.
Not an example, but maybe I could help identify some individually corpse-like features?
Dull eyes: no small movements, no more moisture on them, slightly unfocused and off-center gaze to really sell it
Slightly discolored skin: Vampires are usually pale enough to qualify, so changing it to more of a lightly hue shifted tint or something might help get it across
Dirty hair: Even a Toreador is unlikely to care about fully proper hair care at this point. Some general grime could help, even if there aren't oils to get their hair greasy, there's still dust and dirt in the air. This may be different for your character though, as I don't know for sure how he is
Clothes: I'd suspect that he'd continue wearing the same outfit until it becomes an obvious problem, but as with the above, I must say I don't know your character
Slightly gaunt figure: This probably falls at least a bit out of canon, but it's a fairly common signifier for "this monster is undead" that could easily be recognized.
I hope this helps a bit, at least in theory. I was focusing on ones that wouldn't be overtly supernatural since that would basically make your dude a Nosferatu without Obfuscate
It does help! the only description i can find from canon is:
"2 is "disgusting", you cant look at it and if you do, whatever you see is barely humanoid"
And discussing with my ST he figures its esentially corpse like now.
So ive kinda settled on this, using references like livor mortis (the veins and red hands n feet). Very rough i know.
I think youre right on all counts though, his hair is probably more the texture of staw now, his eyes are bloodied and sunken, irises dull and foggy.
While he was extremely vain before, the current context is hes on what he believes is a suicide mission to stop Malkav waking up so hes slowly been losing those priorities along with his morals. Which explains his outfit- Currently stuck in his pyjamas until he gets new clothes because the ship we were using was sank at port, stole a sword and a shotgun from the last place they stopped at where they killed a few werebeasties. Lost the bottom half of his cane to the wreck, but kept the stake half.
It feels abit extreme but he *is* an elder. And at H2 hes basically one step away from crawling frothing at the mouth and killing anything that walks. So looking inhumane is adjacent to nosferatu but when you freak both kine and kindred out i figure it must be translated as such.
I do fear he looks alot more like a zombie though...
i have not posted in a looong time. Henry with the beasts eyes :)
Also... my ST is using Henry as an npc in a new version of his Jack the Ripper campain- AS the ripper. So i wrote him a short about the first murder.
Warnings: explicit gore and violence, Dehumanisation, aligns with Jack the Rippers first murder.
A New Artform
Insistent.
Henry has never liked the type.
"Where are you heading, handsome?" A shrill voice grates on his nerves. A pungent floral fragrance trying to hide the sharp tang of alcohol and sweat that overwhelms her. She must have come from the nearby pub: everything about her screamed 'Cheap'.
"A cold night, isn't it? A bit of company might warm you up," Keen hands caress his shoulder and rest between the crook of his elbow. A scowl and a few blunt words should be enough, "I'm not interested." It is usually enough.
She presents herself on a silver platter. Of course, that is her intention, but the irony falls flat on kine. She intercepts his path, stealing his attention and gait.
Her hands trail across his chest, leaning into his space, "I have a room just around the corner..."
A pale hand jerks forward, grasping across her mouth. Thumb and fingers digging harshly into her cheeks. Green eyes narrow into an intense focus.
"Would you shut up." Henry grits out through a glare.
She's not his type, but she could be something else. If she wants his full undivided attention, she will have it.
Fueled by the persistent growling of the beast inside his chest, a shock of electricity through his vitae quickens his hand, still clutched around his cane. He twists, the shaft falling to the ground with a clatter, as a short silver blade is freed and brought swiftly into the woman's throat until forced to a stop by bone. Her legs give out beneath her as she is pushed down, her skull impacting the concrete beneath her with a 'Crack!'.
A choking mewl from behind his hand sparks a desire inside, a twisted joy, leaving him a slave to indulgence. Henry jerks the knife out only to plunge back in during a gasping breath. The silver rips through flesh, tracing her spine within, right to left. Crimson flows freely under her chin. Muffled chokes and sobs disappear into the silence of the night as the life fades from fearful eyes. He lifts his hands and shifts back onto his heels. His canvas is open and pliant for him to do as he pleases.
A focus in the human form is required in figurative art, one should know what fills the insides. A slice frees ribbons of entrails from the confines of the abdomen, wet and raw. The body whines no more, Henry can only hear the tearing of flesh and fabric and the squelch of blood bubbling from the wound.
He hikes the fabric of her skirt higher. The knife plunging into his canvas from beneath, ruining the only thing she was good for not two minutes ago. The warmth beneath his palm feels almost searing in the cold of the night; it would be gone soon, along with the rosy flush across her thighs. The taste of metal permeates the air, but it means nothing to Henry while he works.
His blade carves along his canvas' side leaving streaks of vermillion in its wake, a frame for the pale canvas. The body is surprisingly easy to carve, it gives easier than even the softest of wood. Requiring only the slightest amount of pressure before the sharp tip bursts through the skin. It leaves his lines jagged and rough, having expected more resistance from the medium.
A warped smile grows on his face. His excitement boils with the stimuli, the sight, the scent, the fading warmth under him; the knowledge that he had made this. Were he a lesser man he might have caved to his baser urges to feed. Instead Henry is mesmerised by the sight, as he had been during its creation.
He retreats from his work. The result is a painting of a woman bathed in silver light; a hand reaching for the stable door, fabric hiked up above her knees, and eyes still wide in fear yet no longer seeing. Her cheeks, where he had held her, blooming into shades of purple and black, and the sparkles of scarlet from her throat like beads of a ruby necklace. The fleshy protrusion of her bowels like writhing snakes and his incisions framing her slim body. The crimson contrasted beautifully against the stark white of her flesh.
It suited her. It was all too much. Too captivating.
Taking the blade into his mouth Henry cleared the blood from his tool, taking in the slight acoholic tang. He wiped the spittle and blood from the palm of his hand onto his thigh with a cringe. The purrs of the beast coursed through his chest, satisfied by the act of creation yet still craving more. He picked up the shaft of his cane, resheathing the blade.
He pondered, as he stared, if this is how it felt for Oliver. He doubts it. That man couldn't discern art from mess if it slapped him in the face, and it has. A sport rather than an art he decides. It can't have been more than five minutes since his blade made contact and already the feeling had faded into disappointment. There was nothing more for Henry to see. The moonlight was gone, hidden behind clouds, blood had dripped leaving shifting trails of dull red, her hair fallen from its place. The scene had changed. Gone was the vibrant painting he saw, his work of art-
Footsteps interrupt his thoughts, distant enough as he becomes one with the shadows. Already there had been murders in the paper nearby, a murder on the streets of London is not out of the ordinary. There was no masquerade to be broken, no names to be blamed.
It didn't matter now, he had places to be, the moon was still high. He left the mess for someone else to find.
My friend is rerunning his Ripper campaign with a new group, and every time he does he likes to change who the ripper is.
Im so excited to hear about it because hes using my character Henry (who immitated the last ripper kill in our game to get rid of his brothers unlawfully sired childe), as the Ripper! hehehehe free content of my boy i cant wait to hear about it!
Basically a 'what if his murderous streak started early' i literally cant wait because only one of the party members actually know the character, the others have probably heard OF him (i cannot shut up about him and my friend likes to fuck with him), but wont see it coming like the member who does know him.
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